For each data set, we first extract their backbones
according either to a simple thresholding procedure or using the significant tie filter [1]} (see below and Methods). Each backbone contains only a tunable
fraction \(f\)  of the original ties (we will use
\(f=40\%\) , \(10\%\)  and \(5\%\) ). In addition to the list of backbone ties (and possibly the corresponding
lists of temporal edges), we assume that some additional statistics of the original data sets are
conserved, such as the total number of temporal edges,
the distributions of contact and
inter-contact durations (or simply the parameters of their fit
to simple functional forms such as power-laws [2]}, [3]}, [4]}).
Whenever the data presents a group structure,
the corresponding metadata can also be conserved
alongside the backbones.
